Erickson Milestone

Land for South Side stadium was donated 20 years ago

July 7, 2013

Those iconic words from the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band soon will apply to the Erickson All-Sports Facility as it was indeed 20 years ago this month that the late Charles O. Erickson went public with his offer to donate land along old Camden Avenue for the purpose of giving Parkersburg South High School an athletic home.

The following month, a governing group, the Erickson All-Sports Facility Board of Directors was incorporated. Since that time, the Erickson All-Sports Facility has been a work in progress.

Article Photos

Photos by Terry L. EstepOne of the traditions at the Erickson All-Sports Facility, which serves as the home to Parkersburg South athletics, is a set of bushes carved to spell out the word SOUTH. South didn’t have an athletic home until Charles O. Erickson donated property along Camden Avenue for the purpose of constructing a stadium. That was in July 1993. Today, 20 years later, the Erickson All-Sports Facility has beccome a fixture in the local community.

Today, it includes the athletic stadium that is the home to Parkersburg South's football, soccer, track and cross country teams as well as an outdoor tennis complex that rivals any in West Virginia.

No one has been more involved every step of the way than Parkersburg attorney Rick Bush, who originally was elected as the president of the Erickson board of directors and remains so today.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Parkersburg News and Sentinel, Bush revealed: